Instructions and of full and ample Power from His Majesty He having fully signified His Pleasure to those whom He did entrust with the executing thereof not thinking it fit to imploy other Servants of greater Eminence by reason of the disorders and iniquities of the Times and as forced by the importance of his other great and weighty Affairs He was necessitated to prorogue the Parliament for some few days so did He most really intend to perform at the time prefixed whatsoever He had promised by the Act of Pacification But neither can the neglect of His Servants if any be nor those other Reasons alledged by the foresaid Noblemen Barons and Burgesses in their Declaration for their Sitting satisfie His Majesty for their proceeding in a Parliamentary way since by the Duty and Allegeance of Subjects they are bound to acknowledge in a most special manner His Transcendent Power in Parliaments and if Subjects there do assume the Power of Making Laws and of Rescinding those already made what Act can be done more derogatory to that Regal Power and Authority we are all sworn to maintain Therefore His Majesty conceives they cannot in reason expect He can interpose His Royal Authority to these or any other Acts whatsoever whereto neither He in His own Royal Person nor by His Commissioner did assist Yet such is His Majesties Clemency that when they shall take such an Humble and Dutiful way as may witness that they are as careful and tender of His Majesties Royal Power as they are desirous of His Approbation then shall it be time for them to expect such a Gracious and Iust Answer as may testifie His Majesties Fatherly Compassion of that His Native Kingdom and his Pious and Princely care of performing whatsoever is necessary for establishing their Religion and Laws So thus having imparted unto you all that was enjoyned me by His Majesty I shall say no more from my self but I am Your Lordships humble Servant LANERICK Whitehall 27th of June 1640. My Lord Lowdon found matters at so great a height that he was able to do little more than give intelligence that he delivered the Letter to the Lords at Edinburgh who returned to it the following Answer My Lord The Reply of the Committee WE received your Lordships Letter of the 27th of June from the Lord Lowdon whose relief out of Prison gives us occasion before we answer your Lordships Letter to acknowledge the same as an act of His Majesties Royal Iustice and Goodness although the pretended cause of his Imprisonment was but a malicious Calumny of the Enemies of the Kings Honour and our Peace forged to engage both His Majesties Kingdoms in a National War As we cannot but regrate that any neglect of His Majesties Officers or absence of His Commissioner whose presence we did both desire and expect should hinder the interposing of His Royal Authority to these Acts of Parliament which were found most necessary for establishing Religion and the Peace of this Kingdom and which according to the Acts of Pacification His Majesty was graciously pleased to promise so we have and shall still endeavour to give demonstration of that tender Respect we have of His Majesties Honour and Royal Power And whereas your Lordships Letter doth imply that we should take some other way for the more easie obtaining His Majesties Approbation which also by several reasons hath been most instantly pressed by the Lord Lowdon yet we conceive that Parliamentary way which was taken by the Estates convened by His Majesties Special Warrant to have been most Legal and necessary and no ways derogatory to His Majesties Power in Parliament nor contrary to the Duty of good Subjects who are warranted by the Articles of Pacification under His Majesties Hand to determine all Civil questions ratifie the Conclusions of the Assembly and remove the present Distractions of this Kingdom as is more abundantly demonstrated by their Declaration in Parliament thereabout So that we dare not take any other Course which may entrench upon their Parliamentary Power or Proceedings nor will we being so few in number appointed by them to stay here presume of our selves in a matter of so great moment to return a more full and particular Answer till there be a more frequent Meeting of those appointed by Parliament which will be shortly and then your Lordship shall be acquainted that you may shew His Majesty their Resolutions and humble Desires and we shall remain Your Lordships affectionate Friends and Servants Signed Lindsay Balmerino Burghly Napier J. Murray G. Dundas Ja. Sword J. Forbes Ed. Eggar Edinburgh 7th of July 1640. They went on with their Preparations The Preparations are great in Scotland and caused all to bring in the tenth Peny of their Rents to make this War look like a Sacred one since carried on by the Tithes and ordered their Forces to be drawn together Mean while the King went on at as good a pace as he could and went from London in the end of Iuly to make his Rendezvous at York The Earl of Strafford staid some time behind partly for Sickness partly to see what Money could be borrowed from London and at this time there were great and high Misunderstandings between him and Sir Henry Vane both making their Complaints to the Marquis by their Letters Strafford was also to bring an Army out of Ireland upon the West of Scotland whereupon they in Scotland drew their Forces together in the end of August and resolved to march into England and make that the Seat of the War pretending as by their Declaration then emitted doth appear that their Trade was block't up by English Ships that in England and Ireland Scotishmen were proceeded against for taking the Covenant and the English Council had voted a War with them wherefore they said they were constrained to go into England with their Petitions declaring they came not to invade England but to avert the Invasion of their Country that was designed adding that they should be so far from doing prejudice to any in England that severe Justice should be executed upon those who took any thing in England without payment And about this time Ruthwen being for many months block't up in the Castle of Edinburgh so that Victuals and Ammunition were spent his Water also failed and most of his Souldiers died was forced to Capitulate and render up the Castle of the Covenanters But not to stand too long on matters universally known as soon as they entred England The Scotish Army enters England the King by Proclamation declared them Traytors on the 22th of August yet they went on and when they came to the Ford of Tine at Newburn some miles above Newcastle they found it guarded by a Body of Foot who had raised a Brest-work near the River and lay there to obstruct their passage Yet no sooner did the Scottish Cannon begin to play but they struck with Fear threw down their Arms and run away whereupon the General
raised Regiments of five or six Troops on their own expences And though it is not to be imagined that the publick Expence of so great a Design was not likewise great yet there was a sad want of Money which the Duke and his Brother did all they could to supply as far as their Credit could go and raised above two and twenty thousand pounds sterling for prosecuting of the Engagement and were on all publick occasions so liberal of their own Money as if some Bank had been put into their hands The Curses the Ministers thundred against all who joyned in this Engagement made the Souldiers very heartless being threatned with no less than Damnation This obliged the Lords to use Force in some places for carrying on their Levies and indeed the Ministers counter-acting the State was such that it is hard to judge whether their Boldness or the Parliaments Patience was most to be wondred at The Lords resolved to chastise them to purpose in due time but judged the present time improper for it and to carry on the Levies the better the Parliament adjourned for three weeks So the Lords went to the several places of their Interests leaving a Committee behind them at Edinburgh but before their Adjournment they wrote the following Letter to the Presbyteries The Parliaments Letter to the Presbyteries THe many Scandals that are tâ—rown on our Actions by the favourers of Sectaries and haters of the Person of our King and Monarchical Government invite us to this extraordinary Address to you conjuring you as you will answer the Great God whose Servants you are not to suffer your selves to be possest with unjust and undeserved Prejudices against us and our Proceedings who have since our late Meeting in Parliament preferred no earthly thing to Religion and the promoving all the ends of our Covenant and have constantly used all real Endeavours to have carried on these Duties to the satisfaction of the most tender Consciences and especially by our great Compliance with the many Desires from the Commissioners of the General Assembly we have proceeded to greater discoveries of our Resolutions in the ways and means of managing of this present Service than possibly in prudence we ought to have done having so near and active Enemies to oppose us neither can it with any Truth or Iustice in any sort be alledged that we have in the least measure wronged or violated the least Priviledges and Liberties of the Church or taken upon us the determination or decision of any matters of Faith or Church-discipline though we be unjustly charged with making an Antecedent Iudgment in matters of Religion under pretence whereof great Encroachments are made on our unquestioned Rights for what can be more Civil than to determine what Civil Duties we ought to pay to our King or what Civil Power he ought to be possessed of and if we meet with obstructions and opposition in carrying on these Duties are not we the only Iudges thereof is there any other Authority in this Kingdom but that of King and Parliament and what flows from them that can pretend any Authoritative Power in the choice of the Instruments and Managers of our Publick Resolutions is it a Subject for the Dispute of Church-Iudicatories whether His Majesty have a Negative Voice or not These things certainly cannot be pretended to by any Kirk-man without a great Vsurpation over the Civil Magistrate whereof we are confident the Church of Scotland or any Iudicatory thereof will never be guilty nor fall into the Episcopal disease of meddling in Civil Affairs and if any have already in these Particulars exceeded their bounds we expect the ensuing General Assembly will censure it accordingly and prevent the vilifying and contemning the Authority of Parliament by any of their Ministers either in or out of their Pulpits who shall offer to stir up the Subjects of this Kingdom to disobey or deny to give Civil Obedience to their Laws it being expresly prohibited by the 2 and 5 Acts of King James the sixth his eighth Parliament Anno 1584. That none of His Majesties Subjects under pain of Treason impugne the Authority of Parliament And therefore seeing the Cause is the same for which this Kingdom hath done and suffered so much and that we are resolved to proceed for the Preservation and Defence of Religion before all wordly Interest whatsoever and to carry on sincerely really and constantly the Covenant and all the Ends of it as you will find by our Declaration herewith sent to you we do confidently expect that as the Ministers of this Kingdom have hitherto been most active and exemplary in furthering the former Expeditions so now you will continue in the same Zeal to stir up the People by your Preaching and Prayers and all other ways in your Calling to a chearful Obedience to our Orders and Engageing in the business that you will not give so great advantage to the Enemies of Presbyterial Government and bring so great a Scandal on this Church as to oppose the Authority of Parliament or obstruct their Proceedings in their necessary Duties for the good of Religion Honour and Happiness of the King and his Royal Posterity and the true Peace of His Dominions Signed by Order of Parliament Alex. Gibsone Clerk Regist. Edinburgh May 11 1648. The Parliament having resolved to raise an Army for the Kings Relief The Parliament sends for the Scotish Army in Ireland found it expedient for encreasing the number and strength of their Forces to send to Ireland for a part of their Scotish Army there which as was told An. 1642 had been sent from Scotland thither by Commission from the King under the Great Seal and upon a Treaty and Establishment betwixt the two Nations for suppressing the Irish Rebellion and for perswading them to desert for so Noble an Undertaking their Interest in Ireland which was very considerable for there was above seven hundred and seventy thousand pound sterling of Arrear resting to them upon a stated Accompt fitted by Persons intrusted by the Parliament of England and Commissioners from them preceding the 16th of Iune 1647 besides a year more until Iune 1648 not at all reckoned they sent over three of their number two Knights Sir Iames Macdougal and Sir William Cocheran now Earl of Dundonald and Mr. Crawford Burgess of Linlithgow with Letters and Instructions to that purpose They were kindly received by such of the Officers as had chief Power there but most unwelcome to a contrary Party who had notice how averse the Kirk to which they were addicted had declared themselves from the Designs of that Parliament nevertheless it was quickly agreed to that about twelve hundred Horse and two thousand and one hundred Foot should be provided and regimented and transported to Scotland to be conducted by Sir George Monro in the quality of a Major-General and to be joyned with the Dukes Armie At Westminster they were in great Confusion fearing that the General
THE MEMOIRES OF THE LIVES and ACTIONS OF Iames and William DUKES OF HAMILTON and CASTLEHERALD c. In which an Account is given of the Rise and Progress of the CIVIL WARS of SCOTLAND With other great Transactions both in England and Germany from the Year 1625 to the Year 1652. Together with many LETTERS INSTRUCTIONS and other PAPERS Written by King Charles the I. Never before Published All drawn out of or Copied from the Originals By GILBERT BVRNET In Seven Books LONDON Printed by I. Grover for R. Royston Bookseller to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty MDCLXXVII To the King May it please Your Sacred Majesty THE following History being a Relation of Your Royal Fathers Counsels and Affairs in Scotland I hope for an easy Pardon of my Presumption in offering it to Your Majesty Your Concern in a Work that relates so much to the King Your Blessed Father moved You to look on it and read some parts of it and after You had honoured it with a Character too advantageous for me to repeat You were Graciously pleased to allow me Your Royal Licence not only to Publish it but to Address it to Your Self and therefore I hope Your Majesty will favourably Accept this tribute of my Duty which with an humble Devotion I lay down at Your Feet My Zeal for Your Majesties Honour and Service engaged me first in this Work and the same Passion which I derived from my Education and still governs my Heart and Life makes me now Publish it For nothing does more clear the Prospect of what is before us than a strict Review of what is past which I have laboured to make with all possible Fidelity and Diligence I know I shall not escape Censures since few can bear a true and free History but as I have set down nothing for which I have not Authentick Vouchers so I have observed Your Majesties Acts of Oblivion and Indempnity as much as could consist with the Laws of History and have avoided the naming of Persons upon Ingrateful Occasions But no Precaution can secure one from severe Challenges that writes so near those Times while many Persons concerned are yet alive yet if Your Majesty continues to honour these Memoires with Your Royal Approbation I shall easily bear them SIR You have here a true Account of the Services and Sufferings of two of Your Subjects who dedicated themselves to Your Majesties Interests and became Sacrifices for them The Elder of these Brothers had not the honour of being known to Your Majesty yet he lost his life in Your Reign The Younger survived as long as he could serve Your Majesty but when he saw his Life like to be unprofitable to Your Service it became uneasy to himself which made him so prodigal of it in Your own sight And Your Majesty does his Memory the Honour of remembring him still with the highest expressions of Esteem and Acknowledgment which a King can bestow on a Subject They had that Unblemished Loyalty conveyed to them from their Ancestors as the Entail of their Family which has always payd an Uninterrupted Fidelity to the Crown and they have transmitted it as an Inheritance to those who have succeeded them who have already given great Demonstrations of most sincere and Loyal Duty to Your Majesty That God of his Infinite Mercy may preserve Your Majesty and bless you with Wise Counsels Obedient Subjects and Prosperous Undertakings and after a long and happy Reign on Earth may Crown You with an Incorruptible Crown of Glory is the daily Devotion of May it please your Sacred Majesty Your Majesties most faithful most humble and most loyal Subject and Servant Gilbert Burnet London the 21st of October 1673. CHARLES R. WHereas Gilbert Burnet one of Our Chaplains in Ordinary hath composed a Book entituled Memoires of the Lives and Actions of the Dukes of Hamilton which We have Seen and Approved and whereas he hath humbly desired Our Royal Licence for the Printing and Publishing of the samâ— We have thought fit to condescend unto that his Request and We do accordingly hereby Grant Our Royal Licence and Priviledg unto the said Gilbert Burnet his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns for the sole Printing and Publishing of the foresaid Book for the Term of fourteen Years to be computed from the day of its being first set forth And Our Will and Pleasure is and We do hereby Require and Command that during the said Term of Fourteen Years no Printer Publisher or other Person whatsoever Our Subjects do presume to Imprint or cause to be Imprinted without the knowledg and consent of him the said Gilbert Burnet his Heirs Executors Administrators or Assigns the foresaid Book in whole or in part or to Sell the same or to Import into Our Kingdom any Copies thereof Imprinted in Parts beyond the Seas upon pain of the Loss and Forfeiture of all Copies so Imprinted Sold or Imported contrary to the Tenour of this Our Royal Licence and of being further proceeded against as Offenders against the Act made in the Fourteenth Year of Our Reign entituled An Act for Regulating Printing and Printing-presses and suffering the Mulcts Penalties and Inflictions in the said Act particularly mentioned as the Cause shall require Given at Our Court at White-Hall the third day of November 1673. in the Five and Twentieth Year of Our Reign By His Majesties Command H. Coventry THE PREFACE HIstories are of all Books the most universally read the wiser find matter of great Speculation in them and improve their Knowledg by the Experience these give them and weaker Persons make them their Diversion and entertain Discourse with them But most Writers of History have been men that lived out of business who took many things upon trust and have committed many and palpable Errours in matters of Fact and either give no account at all of the secret Causes and Counsels of the greatest Transactions or when they do venture upon it it is all Romance and the effect of their Imagination or Interest And indeed the Authors of all the Histories that were written for near a thousand years together being for the most part Monks there is no great reason to think they were either well informed or ingenuous in what they delivered to Posterity though there is perhaps no Nation that is more beholding to their Labours than England is Of all men those who have been themselves engaged in Affairs are the fittest to write History as knowing best how matters were designed and carried on and being best able to judge what things are of that Importance to be made Publick and what were better suppressed And therefore Caesars Commentaries are the most Authentick and most generally valued pieces of History and in the next Form to these Philip de Comines Guicciardine Sleidan Thuanus and Davila are the best received and most read Histories only the last hath failed in some particulars for these men wrote of things in which they were considerable Actors and had
be expressed that will not be yielded to The settling thereof according to My Declaration will answer this 14. If it be pressed that what is now concluded concerning the High Commission be ratified in the next Parliament what Answer shall be given If I may be sure that a Parliament will doe it I shall be content 15. If they Petition for a Convention what Answer shall be given No Petition must be admitted till the Bond be broken if after you may grant it leaving the time to Me. 16. If they petition for a General Assembly that it may be once in the year what Answer shall be given I will not be tied but as I shall find cause 17. If they petition that the Ministers Oath may be no other than that which the Act of Parliament doth order them to take what Answer shall be given I and the Bishops will consider of it 18. If they petition that the Five Articles of Perth may be held as indifferent what Answer shall be given I will hear of no Petition against an Act of Parliament 19. If the Town of Edinburgh may not be dealt with apart to petition for Your Majesties Favour and if they desire that the Council Exchequer and Session may be returned them what Answer shall be given Upon their full submission and renouncing of the Bond they may have their desires 20. If the like course may not be taken with some other principal Burghs As before 21. If to gain some leading men from the Party marks of Your Majesties Favour may not be hoped for To some I to some No. 22. If particular men desire either Acts of Council or Pardons under the Great Seal what shall be done Grant their desires 23. What Service shall be used in the Chappel Royal The English 24. If the Lords of Council and Session shall at that time be pressed to receive Kneeling This is no time for a Communion but when there is they must kneel 25. If thought fit what shall be be done to them that refuse Advise of it 26. If all Acts of Council that have injoyned the use of the Service-Book Book of Canons are not to be suspended and declared of no force in time coming Yes 27. How far Your Majesty will warrant me to declare Your Pleasure to the Lords of the Clergy concerning their living within their Diocesses I shall do it My Self but you may tell any of it 28. How far I may declare Your willingness to give ear to and receive the private Complaints of Your Subjects in general and in particular against any of the Bishops Refuse none 29. If those Ministers who have been by the Multitude displaced are not again to be established They must 30. If in the Abbey-Church the use of the Organs shall be presently enjoyned Yes 31. If those Ministers formerly silenced may not for a time be connived at and permitted to preach If they preach not Sedition 32. If Your Majesty aim at more for the present than establishing the Peace of the Country No more for the present 33. If more it is humbly desired Your Majesty may be pleased to express it When time shall be fit In execution of all which or what else Your Majesty shall think fit to command it is most humbly desired that I may be so warranted that the labouring to put them in execution may not turn to my Ruine nor hazard the losing of Your Majesties Favour dearer to me than life You shall The whole Instructions were signed the 16th of May which follow taken from the Original CHARLES R. BEfore you publish the Declaration which We have signed you shall require all the Council to sign it and if you find that it may conduce to Our Service you shall make all the Council swear to give their best assistance in the execution of the same but this of putting them to their Oaths We leave to your discretion to doe as you shall find occasion but if you shall find it fit to put them to their Oaths those that refuse must be dismissed the Council till Our further Pleasure be known We give you power to cause the Council to sit in what soever place you shall find most convenient for Our Service Edinburgh onely excepted and to change the Meeting thereof as often as occasion shall require You may labour to prepare any of the refractory persons to conceive aright of Our Declaration before it be published so that it be privately and underhand You are to get an Act of Council to pass to declare that this Declaration of Ours ought to free all honest Subjects from the fears of Innovations of Religion or Laws but this you are not to propose publickly except you be sure to carry it If any Protestation be made against Our Declaration the Protesters must be reputed Rebels and you are to labour to apprehend the chiefest of them If Petitions be presented to demand further satisfaction than that We have already given by Our Declaration you are to receive them and to give them a bold Negative both in respect of the Matter and the Form as being presented from a Body which you are no ways to acknowledge If it should be objected against the High Commission that it ought not to be introduced but by Act of Parliament your Answer must be that We found it left Vs by Our Father and therefore We mean to continue it having first regulated it in such a way that it shall be no just Grievance to Our Subjects or against Our Laws and when there is a Parliament We shall be content that iâ— be ratified as We shall now rectifie it If after the limited time in Our Declaration a Body remain at Edinburgh or elsewhere you must raise what Force you can to diâ—sipate and bring them under Our Obedience As soon as the Peace of the Country will permit you are to call a General Assembly for settling of a constant and decent way for Gods Worship We having resolved to call them or to permit them to be as often as occasion shall require We likewise intending to have a Parliament to ratifie what shall be condescended on at the Assembly You may say the Bishops shall impose no other Oath upon Ministers at their Admission but what is warranted by Act of Parliament You are to give direction that the same Service be used in Our Chapel Royal that was before the enjoyning of the Service-book You must admit of no Petition against the 5 Articles of Perth but for the present you are not to press the exact execution of them Whenever the Town of Edinburgh shall depart from the Covenant and petition for Our Favour We will that you bring back the Council and Session to it You shall deny no Pardons nor Acts of Council to any particular persons that shall desire the same for their security Some marks of Favour We may be moved to give to particular persons that may deserve the same All Acts of Council that enjoyn
the use of the new Service-book are to be suspended and to be of no force hereafter You shall declare Our pleasure to Our two Archbishops as soon as the Country is any way settled that it is Our Pleasure that every Bishop shall live within his own Diocess except upon his own urgent occasions or that he be commanded from Vs or the Council to attend there for Our Service which I intend as seldom as may be You shall refuse Complaints against no man in particular whether Officers of State Councellours or Bishops so that it be against their Persons and not their Places All those Ministers who have been displaced by the seditious Multitude are to be so soon as conveniently may be repossessed again as they were As for silenced Ministers you may connive at their Preaching if you find it may tend to the quieting of the Country For the Organs in the Abby-Church We leave them to your discretion when to be used and to advertise Me of your opinion You are to cause insert 6 Weeks in Our Declaration for the delivery up of the Covenant and if you find cause less You shall declare that if there be not sufficient Strength within the Kingdom to force the refractory to Obedience Power shall come from England and that My Self will come in Person with them being resolved to hazard My Life rather than to suffer Authority to be contemned If you shall find cause you are to raise a Guard of 200 or more to attend Our Council You may treat with the Earl of Marr for the keeping of Our Castles of Edinburgh and Sterlin and for the present he must be charged with their safe Custody You shall take seriously into consideration the Copper-coyn and declare Our willingness to remedy the Evils that have risen thereby or what else the Subjects may justly complain of You may declare that as We never intended to assume the Nominating the Provost of Our Town of Edinburgh so We mean not by Our too frequent Letters to hinder the free Election of their own Officers You may likewise declare if you find cause that as We never did so by Gods Grace We never will stop the course of Iustice by any private directions of Ours but will leave Our Lords of Session and other Iudges to administer Iustice as they will be answerable to God and Vs. If you cannot by the means prescribed by Vs bring back the refractory and seditious to due Obedience We do not onely give you Authority but command all hostile Acts whatsoever to be used against them they having deserved to be used no other way by Vs but as a Rebellious People for the doing whereof We will not onely save you harmless but account it as acceptable Service done Vs. Such of these Instructions as you shall find cause We give you leave to divulge and make use of as you find Our Service shall require C. R. At Whitehall the 16th May 1638. All things being thus expeded he took leave a few days after The Marquâ—â— goes for Scoâ—land His Majesty having ordered him to write often to himself and to my Lord of Canterbury he being the onely English person trusted with the secrets of that business The Earl of Sterlin was then Secretary of State for Scotland but as the Copper-coyn made him at that time odious there so he was little esteemed in the Court and not at all imployed in Affairs except in matters of course Sir Henry Vane and the Marquis had contracted a Friendship in the Swedish Camp and so did keep a Correspondence yet that was most about accounts of the posture the King was in in England and what he could do by Force if Treaty could not prevail But with my Lord of Canterbury he kept a constant and free Intercourse and whatever that Archbishop might have been formerly in Scotish Affairs being abused by persons who did not truly represent them to him he was certainly a good Instrument this year which appears from his Letters to the Marquis with the Copies of his Returns which are extant where there were great Jealousies of him My Lord Commissioner begun his Journey about the end of May and on his way he met Letters from Scotland telling him that great Jealousies were raised and vented upon his advertising so many to meet him as if he had some strange design and that his Vassals in Cliddisdale were under high pains discharged to come and pay the duty they owed the Kings Commissioner and their own Superiour On the third of Iune he came to Berwick and there the Earl of Roxburgh met him who told him in what fury all People were and how small hopes there remained of prevailing upon the grounds he was to go on he answered he was resolved to follow his Instructions and be at his hazard Next day the Earl of Lauderdale with my Lord Lindsay came to him and from the later he learned that they would never give up the Covenant that they would have the five Articles of Perth abolished Episcopacy limited so that it should be little more than a Name and if these things were not granted them and a General Assembly and Parliament not called quickly they would call them themselves before the great Crouds at Edinburgh were scattered There was also no small Disorder in Edinburgh at this time for they had notice that there was a Ship in the Road loaded with Arms and Ammunition from which they took the Alarm having it represented much beyond the truth 200 Musquets and as many Pikes with a small quantity of Powder being all the Arms that were in the Ship They resolved to go out the next day and seize the Ship which had been easily done it being onely a Merchant-Vessel but the Earl of Traquair apprehending the hazard caused all the Arms to be sent down in a Boat that night to Fisher-raw and got Carts and presently transported them to Dalkeith which was then the Kings House This enraged the Covenanters when known by them next day and some of the more forward moved that they should presently go to Dalkeith and take them out by force but the wiser of them stopped this yet they set sure Guards around the Castle of Edinburgh and at all the Ports of the City that none of them might be carried thither This meeting with the Marquis his coming down was made use of by the Incendiaries to persuade the People that he designed mischief by these Arms and by the Advertisements he had formerly given another hellish report was also spread that he designed to call a Meeting of the chief Covenanters of all Ranks to Dalkeith and there to blow them up whereupon they resolved not to go out nor treat with him there at all All this was done to irritate the People into a prejudice against him of which he gave Advertisements to the King and held on his Journey The first thing he did was to inform himself exactly of all Matters and Persons
shall have more certainty by my next I have sent for Arms to Holland for 14000 Foot and 2000 Horse for my Ships they are ready anâ— I have given Order to send three for the Coast of Ireland immediately under pretence to defend our Fishermen Last of all which is indeed most of all I have consulted with the Treasurer and Chancellour of the Exchequer for Money for this years Expedition which I estimate at two hundred thousand pounds Sterlin which they doubt not but to furnish me more I have done but these are the chief heads Now for your Advice I desire to know whether you think it fit that I should send six thousand Land-men with the Fleet that goes to the Frith or not for since you cannâ—t secure me my Castle of Edinburgh it is a question whether you can secure the landing of those men and if with them you can make your self Master of Leith to fortifie and keep it of this I desire you to send me your Resolution with all speed I leave it to your consideration whether you will not think it fit to see if you can make all the Guns of the Castle of Edinburgh unserviceable for any body since they cannot be useful for me Thus you may see that I intend not to yield to the Demands of those Traitors the Covenanters who I think will declare themselves so by their Actions before I shall doe it by my Proclamation which I shall not be sorry for so that it be without the personal hurt of you or any other of my honest Servants or the taking of any English place This is to shew you that I care not for their affronting or disobeying my Declaration so that it go not to open mischief and that I may have some time to end my Preparations So I rest Your assured constant Friend CHARLES R. Greenwich 20 June 1638. The Marquis did again send a new Dispatch much of the same strain with the former before he had received this Letter representing the great hazards he apprehended from a Breach and that he feared the King would be faintly followed by the English withall he gave the King a large account of the Explanation was offered to that part of the Covenant by which they were bound to mutual Defence to which His Majesty wrote the following Answer Hamilton I Must needs thank you that you stand so close and constantly to my Grounds and you deserve the more since your fellow-Counsellours do rather dishearten than help you in this business for which I swear I pity you much There be two things in your Letter that require Answer to wit the Answer to their Petition and concerning the Explanation of their damnable Covenant for the first the telling you that I have not changed my mind in this particular is Answer sufficient since it was both foreseen by me and fully debated betwixt us two before your down-going and for the other I will onely say that so long as this Covenant is in force whether it be with or without Explanation I have no more Power in Scotland than as a Duke of Venice which I will rather die than suffer yet I commend the giving ear to the Explanation or any thing else to win Time which now I see is one of your chiefest cares wherefore I need not recommend it to you Another I know is to shew the World clearly that my taking of Arms is to suppress Rebellion and not to impose Novelties but that they are the seekers of them wherefore if upon the publishing of my Declaration a Protestation should follow I should think it would rather doe right than wrong to my Cause and for their calling a Parliament or Assembly without me I shâ—uld not much be sorry for it would the more loudly declare them Traitors and the more justifie my Actions therefore in my mind my Declaration would not be long delayed but this is a bare Opinion and no Command Lastly my resolution is to come my self in person accompanied like myself Sea-forces nor Ireland shall not be forgotten the particulars of which I leave to the Comptrollers relation as I do two particulars to the Archbishop of Canterbury which you forgot to mention in my Letter and so I rest Your assured constant Friend CHARLES R. Greenwich 25 June 1638. Upon this the Marquis spoke big to them The Marquis threatens the Covenanters and threatened to leave the Imployment and go to Court but to return to Scotland again shortly attending His Majesty in another posture This cooled their Courage a little for they were not then in a posture for a Breach and so they spoke more mildly saying who speak with more submission That they were sorry His Majesty mistook their good and innocent Intentions all they designed being the preservation of Religion and Laws and that if these were secured they would demean themselves in all time coming as good Subjects he said If they would all go home to their Houses he would beg liberty to wait on His Majesty with their Desires and return them an Answer within three weeks or a month But the true reasons that moved him to desire permission to go up were that hereby he gained so much more time as also he would more fully inform the King of the state of Affairs and see in what forwardness the Kings Preparations were but chiefly to try what he could prevail about establishing the Confession of Faith which had passed in Parliament 1567 for he judged if His Majesty did sign and authorize that Confession with a Bond for defending it in subordination to the Kings Authority The Marquiâ— asks leave to go to Court it might give full satisfaction to all that there should be no Innovation in Religion at least the Vulgar who had been poisoned with those Fears might be recovered a considerable party of the Covenanters gained and His Majesties Cause made more favourable to all the World This was not to be moved or managed by Letters therefore he begged permission to wait upon His Majesty which the King granted in the following Letter Hamilton YOurs of the 24th though it be long requires but a short Answer it being onely to have leave to come up and obtains iâ— of His Majesty which is grounded upon so good reason that I cannot but grant it Some Considerations in the mean time I think fit to put to you first to take heed how you engage your self in the way of Mediation to me for though I would not have you refuse to bring up to me any Demand of theirs to gain time yet I would not have you promise to mediate for any thing that is against my Grounds for if you do I must either prejudice my self in the granting or you in denying then I would have you take care that no more Subscriptions be urged upon any especially of Council or Session lastly that you leave such encouragement to these few that have not yet forsaken my Cause that
the Accompts of his Trustees at that time Upon the Kings Pleasure that was signified by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Marquis emitted a Proclamation for the Sessions sitting down on the second of Iuly at Edinburgh The Session sits again at Edinburgh and thither he went that day to intimate to them His Majesties Goodness for them in noâ— putting them to the trouble and expence of removing their Families elsewhere wherefore he recommended His Majesties Service to them and that if any thing came from the Tables they should not fail to pass that Censure on it which was according to Law Next he called for the Covenanters Petitions which he promised to present to His Majesty and return them an Answer betwixt that and the fifth of August with which they were satisfied for that time On the fourth of Iuly he held a Council and presented the Kings Declaration to the Councellours and having before-hand prepared most of them with a great deal of industry he got it signed by them all an Act passed The Kings Proclamation is published and protested against that the Subjects ought to rest satisfied with it It was immediately sent to the Market-cross and proclaimed but notwithstanding all the Grace it contained it met with a Protestation from the Tables But upon the back of this the Marquis met with one of the most troublesome passages of his whole Negotiation There were some Councellours who were not satisfied with the Declaration and those he got to be absent from Council that day but divers of thosâ— who had signed the Act that the Subjects ought to rest satisfied with the Declaration came afterwards to him telling him that he had pressed them to what they had not well considered when they did it but upon second thoughts they found they had wronged their Consciences wherefore they desired he would call a new Council The Council is inconstant that they might retract what they had done This he studied to divert by all means representing how contrary it would be to their Honour and to the Kings Service and Good of the Country and so he shook them off that night but next day those and many more came to him with the same Desires and say or do what he could nothing would prevail with them for they told him plainly if he called not a Council they would find another way to make their Retractation well enough known and that was to subscribe the Covenant The Marquis having spoken with the whole Council apart found that three parts of four would immediately fall off if he gave them not satisfaction and judging that such a visible breach with the Council would ruine the Kings Affairs therefore since the Act was not registred but onely subscribed he thought the Course that had least danger in it was to tear it before them by this means he got that storm calmed All this while that he had been in Scotland he had not forgot the Kings Orders about his Castles The Marquis takes care of the Kings Castles Dumbriton was secured though it run a risque the Constable being at London and the Under-keeper taking the Covenant but he called home Sir William Stewart who was Constable under the Duke of Lennox to wait on his Charge and this delivered him from that hazard As for Edinburgh-Castle which was then in the Earl of Marre's hand it cost him more trouble Divers of the Earl of Marre's friends who had much credit with him being not well inclined and much being trusted to the Constable he durst not in the Kings Name require him to yield it up lest that had hasted on a Rupture and he could not prevail by fairer ways at first but the issue of this shall be told in its due place This being done the Marquis took his Journey He takes Journey and on the way he had the following Letter from His Majesty Hamilton I Hope that this will find you on the way hitherward wherefore remitting all business till I speak with you these Lines are only to hearten you in your Iourney for I think that it will be very much for my Service So desiring you to make as much haste as the weather will permit I rest Your assured constant Friend CHARLES R. Greenwich the 9th July 1638. POSTSCRIPT Forget not to bring with you the Copies of all the Proclamations and Protestations that have been made When he came to Court he gave the King a full account of all had passed in Scotland and of the strength and fury of the Covenanters and gives the King an account of Affairs together with the inconstancy of many of the Council and how His Majesty had been abused in the hopes he was put in of the readiness of his Preparations in England which I gather from some little Notes he took of things and the Copies of his Letters He next told His Majesty that nothing prevailed so much on the Vulgar in Scotland as the cursed insinuations were given of His Majesties staggering in the Protestant Religion wherefore he proposed that His Majesty might cause renew the Confession of Faith which was established at the Reformation and ratified in Parliament An. 1567 and to that His Majesty did readily consent At length His Majesty having considered for some days of the whole Affair and having fully debated every particular with the Marquis and my Lord of Canterbury in end His Goodness and Paternal Affection for his poor Subjects overcame all that Indignation which their Actions had raised in him wherefore he resolved on enlarging his Instructions which he did as follows CHARLES R. YOV shall try by all means to see if the Council will sign the Confession of Faith established by Act of Parliament and gets new and fuller Instructions with the new Bond joyned thereto but you are not publickly to put it to Voting except you be sure to carry it and thereafter that probably they will stand to it If the Council do sign it though the Covenanters refuse you shall proceed to the indicting of a free General Assembly and though you cannot procure the Council to sign it yet you are to proceed to the indicting thereof if you find that no other Course can quiet business at this time You shall labour by all fair means that the sitting of the Assembly be not before the first of November or longer if you can obtain it for the place We are pleased to leave it to your election for the manner of indicting you must be as cautious as you can and strive to draw it as near as may be to the former Assemblies in my Fathers time You must labour that Bishops may have Votes in Assemblies which if you cannot obtain then you are to protest in their Favours in the most formal manner you can think of As for the Moderator in the Assembly you are to labour that he may be a Bishop which though you cannot obtain yet you must give way to
as bad if not worse than the Disease The Marquis was so far from denying this that he confessed he could hardly without straining of his own Conscience resolve on the doing of it himself upon divers accounts a chief one being that in disclaiming of Transubstantiation the real presence of the Body and Blood of Christ was rejected which he could not sign without declaring that by real he understood corporal and this he accordingly declared when he signed it But to this he added that it was the Idol of Scotland and he saw no other way to reduce things to any temper unless this Course were taken and followed He presented likewise to the King a Paper of all the Inconveniences which were not only like to follow on the calling of an Assembly but seemed certain which Account was so full that when the Bishop of Ross came up after that being sent by the Bishops to divert the King from calling an Assembly His Majesty said he offered no inconvenience could follow on it but what the Marquis had laid out to the full before him And now the King resolved to try the utmost of yielding for the recovery of His Subjects therefore he again dispatched His Commissioner from Oatlands on the tenth of September with ample Instructions which follow CHARLES R. YOV shall in full and ample manner by Proclamation or otherwise as you shall see cause The Marquis gets new Instructions declare That We do absolutely revoke the Service-Book the Book of Canons and the High Commission You shall likewise discharge the practise of the Five Articles of Perth notwithstanding the Act of Parliament which doth command the same and in the said Proclamation you shall promise in Our Name that if in the first Parliament to be held the three Estates shall think fit to repeal the said Act We shall then give Our Royal Assent to the said Act of Repeal You shall likewise declare that We have enjoyned and authorized the Lords of Our Privy Council to subscribe the Confession of Faith and Bond thereto annexed which was subscribed by Our dear Father and enjoyned by His Authority in the year 1580. and likewise have enjoyned them to take order that all our Subjects subscribe the same You shall likewise declare That Our meaning and pleasure is that none of Our Subjects whether Ecclesiastical or Civil shall be exempted from censures and trial of the Parliament or General Assembly those Courts proceeding against them in due form and order of Law You shall likewise declare That we are Graciously content that the Episcopal Government already established shall be limited with such Instructions as may stand with the Laws of this Church and Kingdom already established You shall offer a Pardon by Proclamation and promise in it a Ratificatification of the same in Parliament to all Our good Subjects who shall rest satisfied with this Our gracious Declaration and hereafter carry themselves as becomes peaceable and dutiful Subjects You shall procure an Act of Council wherein every Councellour shall declare himself fully satisfied with this our Declaration and if you can they shall moreover solemnly swear and protest to adhere to Vs and with their Lives Fortunes and whole Means assist Vs in the punishing and repressing all such as shall be found to be disobedient to Vs or persist in turbulent and unpeaceable Courses and if any of Our Councellours shall refuse so to doe you shall presently remove him from the place of a Councellour You shall likewise require every Lord of the Session to subscribe the Confession of Faith abovementioned and the Bond tâ—ereunto annexed as likewise to make the same Protestation in all things as in the last Instruction is required of a Councellour and if they shall refuse to doe it you shall then certifie to Vs the Names of such Refusers You shall likewise declare that Our Pleasure is That a most solemn Fast be indicted upon a set day throughout the whole Kingdom which shall precede the General Assembly in some competent time The Causes shall be declared to beg Gods blessing on that Assembly to beg of God a peaceable end to the Distractions of this Church and Kingdom with the aversion of Gods heavy judgement from both The form of Indiction we desire to be according to the most laudable Custom of this Church in most extraordinary cases You shall labour as much as in you lieth that both the Electors and Persons elected to be Commissioners as the General Assembly shall be the same that were wont to be in My Fathers time and the same forms to be observed as near as may be but yet if that cannot be obtained it shall be no lett to you from indicting a General Assembly but you shall go on in it by all such means as you shall find to be most advantageous to Me in that Service The time and place of the Assembly Edinburgh only excepted We leave to your Iudgment and Pleasure You shall likewise presently indict a Parliament thâ— time and place We leave likewise to you Whether you shall first publish Our Gracious Offers or first indict the Assembly We leave it to your own Iudgment as you shall see cause If you shall find the most considerable part of the Council not to acquiesce in this Our Gracious Declaration and not to promise hearty and chearful Assistance to Vs as is above-expressed or not a considerable part of other Lords and Gentlemen in case Our Council refuse then you shall neither indict Parliament nor Assembly nor publish any of My Gracious Offers except only the abolishing of the Service-Book Book of Canons and High Commission but leave them to themselves and to such further Order as We shall be forced to take with them only if you foresee a Breach you shall give timely warning thereof to such as have stood well-affected to Our Service that so they may in due time provide for their safety and your self is to return to Vs with expedition You must by all means possible you can think of be infusing into the Ministers what a wrong it will be unto them and what an oppression upon the freedom of their Iudgements if there must be such a number of Laicks to overbear them both in their Elections for the General Assembly and afterwards Likewise you must infuse into the Lay-Lords and Gentlemen with art and industry how manifestly they will suffer if they let the Presbyters get head upon them For the Forms of these We leave to you and such Learned Council as you shall use upon the place always provided that you retain the substance of these Our Instructions You shall enjoyn in Our Name the Lords of Council and all other Our good Subjects to subscribe the Confession of Faith signed by Our dear Father and publish Our charge to all Commissioners and Ministers for that end according to the same signed with Our Royal Hand and further proceed in that particular according as We have directed you and
Threats he should ere long see His Majesty master their Insolence and from thence he gave His Majesty an account of what had passed since his last together with a desire for a Permission to come and wait on him to which the King wrote the following Answer Hamilton I Never expected other than that you would have too just grounds to dissolve this Assembly The King approves of his dissolving the Assembly and certainly I were very unjust if I did not approve you therein since not onely your Instructions warrant you the same but even the Council hath testified to me the Necessity of it And now I shall lay before you some Considerations in the first place to take care that yâ—ur coming away do nâ—t cast things so loose that the honest men â—f my Party do believe that you leave them as in a case desperate or at least that by your Absence they be denuded of Advice and Protection therefore I hope before you come up you will take so good order that your Absence do neither dishearten nor prejudice my Party As for my Preparations I doubt not but ere this you have had a full account by your Cousin Sir James whereby you find that I shall not be able to shew my self like my self before February or March wherefore I lay it to your Consideration whether it were not fit to give hopes that the Parliament shall hold notwithstanding all the impertinencies of this last Assembly so that their Follies break not out into open Acts of Rebellious Violences and really I will not say but that things may be so prepared it may be fitting that it should hold To conclude I hope you do not conceive that the Date of your Commissionership is out wherefore I expect that if you find cause you send out Commissions of Lieutenantries to Huntley fâ—r the North and to Traquair or Roxburgh either joyntly or severally as you shall find most fit for the South yet all as subaltern to you This I confess is not to be done but upon great necessity of which I leave you as upon the place to be Iudge being abundantly satisfied of your zeal and dexterity to serve me as I do of all that I have now written and so I rest Your assured constant Friend CHARLES R. Whitehall 7 Dec. 1638. To this shall be added two Letters written by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Marquis on the same subject My very good Lord Letters from my Lord of Canterbury to the Marquis I Received your Lordships Letters of Novemb. 27th they came safe to me on Decemb. 2d after 8 at night I was glad to see them short but their shortness is abundantly supplied by the length of two Letters one from the Lord Ross and the other from the Dean They have between them made their word good to your Lordship for they have sent me all the passages from the beginning of the Assembly to the time of the Date of their Letters and this I will be bold to say never were there more gross absurdities nor half so many in so short a time committed in any Publick Meeting and for a National Assembly never did the Church of Christ see the like Besides His Majesties Service in general that Church is much beholding to you and so are the Bishops in their Persons and Callings and heartily sorry I am that the People are so beyond your expression furious that you think it fit to send the two Bishops from Glasgow to Hamilton and much more that you should doubt your own safety My Lord God bless your Grace with Life and Health to see this Business at a good end for certainly as I see the face of things now there will very much depend upon it and more than I think fit to express in Letters nay perhaps more than I can well express if I would I am as sorry as your Grace can be that the Kings Preparations can make no more haste I hope you think for truth it is I have called upon His Majesty and by His Command upon some others to hasten all that may be and more than this I cannot doe but I am glad to read in your Letters that you have written at length to His Majesty that you may receive from himself a punctual Answer to all necessary particulars and I am presently going to him to persuade him to write largely to you that you may not be in the dark for any thing But my Lord to meet with it again in your Letters that you cannot tell whether this may be â—our last Letter and that therefore you have disclosed the very thoughts of your Heart doth mightily trouble me but I trust in God he will preserve you and by your great Patience Wisdom and Industry set His Majesties Affairs to your great Honour in a right posture once again which if I might live to see I would be glad to sing my Nunc dimittis I pray my Lord accept my thanks for the poor Clergie there and particularly for the Bishop of Ross who protests himself most infinitely obliged to you I heartily pray your Lordship to thank both the Bishop of Ross and the Dean for their kind Letters and the full account they have given me but there is no particular that requires an Answer in either of them saving that I find in the Deans Letter that Mr. Alex. Hendeâ—son who went all this while for a quiet and calm-spirited man hath shewed himself a most violent and paâ—sionate man and a Moderator without Moderation Truly my Lord never did I see any man of that humour yet but he was deep-dyed in some violence or other and it would have been a wonder to me if Henderson had held free Good my Lord since â—ou are good in the active part in the commixture of Wisdom and Patience hold it out till the People may see the Violence and Injustice of them that would be their Leaders and suffer not a Rupture till there be no Remedy God bless you in all your ways which is the daily prayer of Your Lordships most faithful Friend and humble Servant W. CANT Lambeth 3 Decemb. 1638. My very good Lord I Received your Letters of the second of December upon the sixth of the same at night and could not speak with His Majesty till this day This day I did and shewed him your Letters and the Deans and I read to him more than the later half of all the long Discourse which the Dean wrote unto me for His Majesty was very desinous to know what occasion you took to dissolve the Synod and how you prosecuted it in both which that Paper gave him great satisfaction With your Letters I have received three other Papers that which sâ—ews you have keeped within your Instructions the Copy of the Proclamation which dissolves the Assembly and a Copy of the Councils Letter to the King both which His Majesty takes to be very good Service done for him and commands me to give
of that Our Ancient Kingdom Our Will and Pleasure is that a Free General Assembly be kept at Edinburgh the sixth day of August next ensuing where We intend God willing to be personally present and for the Legal Indiction whereof We have given Orders and Command to Our Council and thereafter a Parliament to bâ— holden at Edinburgh the twentieth day of August next ensuing for ratifying of what shall be concluded in the said Assembly and settling such other things as may conduce to the Peace and Good of Our Native Kingdom and therein an Act of Oblivion to be passed And whereas We are further desired that Our Ships and Forces by Land be recalled and all Persons Goods and Ships be resâ—ored and they made safe from Invasion We are Graciously pleased to declare That upon their disarming and disbanding of their Forces dissolving and discharging all their pretended Tables and Conventicles and restoring unto Vs all Our Castles Forts and Ammunitions of all sorts as likewise Our Royal Honours and to every one of Our good Subjects their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them since the late pretended General Assembly We will presently thereafter recall Our Fleet and retire Our Land-Forces and cause Restitution to be made to all persons of their Ships and Goods detained or arrested since the aforesaid time whereby it may appear that Our Intention in taking up of Arms was no ways for invading Our Own Native Kingdom or to innovate the Religion and Laws but mainly for the maintaining and vindicating of Our Royal Authority And since that hereby it doth clearly appear that We neither have nor do intend any Alteration in Religion and Laws but that both shall be maintained by Vs in their full Integrity We expect the performance of that humble and dutiful Obedience which becometh loyal and dutiful Subjects and as in their several Petitions they have often professed And as We have Iust Reason to believe that to Our peaceable and well-affected Subjects this will be satisfactory so We take God and the World to witness that whatsoever Calamities shall ensue by Our necessitated suppressing of the Insolencies of such as shall continue in their Disobedient Courses is not occasioned by Vs but by their own procurement After this the following Articles were signed THe Forces of Scotland to â—e disbanded and dissolved within eight and fourty hours after the Publication of His Majesties Declaration being agreed upon His Majesties Castles Forts Ammunition of all sorts and Royal Honours to be delivered after the Publication so soon as His Majesty can send to receive them His Majesties Ships to depart presently after the delivery of the Castles with the first fair Wind and in the mean time no interruption of Trade or Fishing His Majesty is Graciously pleased to cause to restore all persons Goods and Ships detained and arrested since the first of November last There shall be no Meetings Treatings Consultations or Convocations of His Majesties Lieges but such as are warrantable by Act of Parliament All Fortifications to desist and no further Work therein and they to be remitted to His Majesties Pleasure To restore to every one of His Majesties Subjects their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them by whatsoever means since the aforesaid time Next the Commissioners signed the following Note IN obedience to His Majesties Royal Commands we shall upon Thursday next the 20th of this June dismiss our Forces and immediately thereafter deliver His Majesties Castles and shall ever in all things carry our selves like Humble Loyal and Obedient Subjects Signed Rothes Dumfermline Lowden W. Douglas Al. Henderson Arch. Johnstown The Treaty being thus ended The Treaty is variously censured all parted with great expressions of Joy But few wise men expected it should be followed with a lasting Agreement the Covenanters being peremptory not to part with a hoof so that whatever Concessions came not up to all their Desires were not like to prove satisfactory Those who understood not the true state of the English Army wondered that the King should have let this opportunity out of his hands whereby they judged he was able to have broken and subdued Scotland And according to the vulgar Civility of of all Censurers of Kings Actions his bad Counsellours bore the blame whereof the far greatest share fell upon the Marquis But others who saw beyond those superficial Observers acknowledged there was an equal temperature of Wisdom and Goodness in His Majesties Concessions not denying a proportionable share of the praise to his good Counsellours The Covenanters judged they had scaped well who got off so easily for it would have been impossible for them to have maintained the great Bodies they had gathered together any longer except they had marched into England to which they had no mind unless forced by necessity But some made another Observation though of less moment yet not unpleasant upon Mr. Henderson's signing the former Paper That it was strange to see a Church-man who had acted so vigorously against Bishops for their meddling in Civil Affairs made a Commissioner for this Treaty and sign a Paper so purely Civil so strongly does Passion and Interest biass and turn men When the Commissioners came back to the Camp A Paper is given out for the Conditions of the Agreement though not agreed to they gave an account of their Negotiation and besides the Articles of Treaty they produced another Paper which passed among all for the Conditions of the Agreement It was a Note containing some Points which were alledged to have been agreed to at Berwick verbally though not set down in the written Treaty which was made up of some down-right Mistakes and of other things which the King in discourse had indeed said but not positively nor as a Determination on which he had concluded However the Army made a Declaration that their accepting of the Kings Papers wherein the Assembly of Glasgow was called the pretended Assembly did not infer their accounting it so which they could never do Yet all the Forcâ—s withdrew most of them laying down Arms but still keeping in great Bodies together and a Proclamation was sent to the North to Montrose on the one side Aboyne on the other to lay down Arms for all this while there had been a Body of about 2000 that had stood for the King in Aberdeenshire who were commanded by my Lord Bamf against whom my Lord Montrose was sent and these Orders were obeyed by them both and indeed they came in good time to Aboyne otherwise he had been sore put to it On the 22th of Iune the Marquis was ordered to go to the Castle of Edinburgh The Marquis receives and furnishes the Castle of Edinburgh and take possession of it in the Kings Name and relieve the Marquis of Huntley and put Ruthwen now created Lord Estrick in it and also to furnish it with store of Provision and Ammunition out
We exspect your best endeavors as a real Testimony of your Affection to Our Service We do likewise think fit that a Double of all such Instructions as have already been given or shall hereafter be given to the Commissioners be sent Vs which will exceedingly conduce to the shunning of unnecessary Mistakings And in case there come any Dispute betwixt Vs and Our Parliament here about the Nomination of Officers and Councellors We hope you will remember upon what Grounds We were induced to yield in this particular to the desires of Our Subjects in Scotland it being Our necessary absence from that Our Native Country and you in private did often promise upon occasion to declare that this Kingdom ought not to urge it as a Precedent for the like to them the Reasons not being the same therefore now you are to think upon the most convenient way to make good that Promise and labour to prevent so great an Inconvenience unto Vs which We expect from you as one of the most acceptable Services can be done unto Vs. CHARLES R. Windsor 26th January 1642. POSTSCRIPT With His Majesties own Hand I have commanded this My Servant Mungo Murray to tell you some things which I think not fit to write therefore desiring you to trust what he will say to you from Me I will now only add that your Affections rightly expressed to Me at this time will do Me an unspeakable Service to the effecting of which I expect much from your particular Affection and Dexterity His Majesty also wrote to the same purpose to the Marquis of Argyle and added the following Postscript with His own Hand I Cannot but thank you for your Letter I received by Kinnoul it being the performance of a Promise you made at my last being in Scotland not doubting but you will perform the rest with the same cheerfulness And I assure you this is a time wherein the kything of your Affection to Me will do Me an unexpressible Service as Mungo Murray will tell you more at large whom I desire you to trust in what he shall tell you from Me. CHARLES R. Windsor 26th January 1642. His Majesty named the Officers of the Army that was to go over to the relief of the Protestants in Ireland choosing them so that they might be most acceptable to Scotland and this he did both to gain the more upon them by his Confidence as also to set those troublesom People out of the way though this turned to the great prejudice of his Affairs in Scotland as shall afterwards appear But for this Advice the Marquis deserved no share of the Blame for the King left him behind at London to see what could be effectuated by Mediation with those of the Peers whom he knew to love him and it appears by the following Note that he continued in His Majesties Confidence Hamilton I Desire you to come hither to morrow not only to end our last Discourse but also upon other business of great Importance and you shall find that I am Your constant Friend CHARLES R. Windsor 1st February 1642. What that business was does not appear to the Writer When the King withdrew further from the Parliament and went Northwards the Marquis was kept at London by a great Sickness of some months continuance The King leaves the Parliament and the Marquis stays at â—ondon being sick the length of it being occasioned by his frequent relapses into Fevers and a lingering Recovery out of them yet his ill-willers at Court represented the story of his Sickness to be but feigned that under that pretext he might desert the King when he needed his Service most But he hearing of this was resolved to be carried sick as he was to the King which the King knowing commanded him to stay till God gave him Strength to come without prejudice to his Health In March the Treaty between the Parliament of England and Scotland was closed The Treaty with Scotland for the relief of Ireland is ended and among other Articles one was cast in That an Vniformity of Religion should be endeavoured betwixt the Kingdoms But the King would do nothing that might seem to stop the Irish business and therefore gave way to it though he smelled the design of it abundantly well Besides the words being conceived in general Terms he would not oppose them since he judged an Uniformity of Religion was to be endeavoured as well as they did but with this odds that he thought the Standard of it should be taken from England As soon as this went home the Scotish Armies went over speedily in the beginning of April And the Scotish Council wrote to His Majesty and the Two Houses that they designed to send the Marquis of Argyle over to Ireland but first to send him and the Earl of Lowdon to London to mediate betwixt the King and the Houses with which His Majesty was pleased But the Houses excused it in a fair way pretending that they judged Argyle's presence necessary in Scotland Many wondred whence this Jealousie of him did flow some thought it was because the King consented to it and therefore they misdoubted him others apprehended that their Jealousie was founded on the Friendship that was betwixt the Marquis and him and that finding the Marquis so inflexibly firm to the Kings Interest and averse from theirs they feared that Argyle's Friendships and his was founded on the same designs New Calumnies on the Marquis At this timâ— some of the Marquis his Enemies represented to His Majesty that he made Offers of the Militia to the Houses with other things highly derogatory to His Majesties Authority and that he pretended a Warrant for those Offers was sent him by Mr. Murray of the Bed-Chamber These were the bad offices some fiery spirits studied to do to all who endeavoured the quenching of that Flame which was like to devour Britain but notice being given of this to the Marquis he wrote Mr. Murray this Answer Worthy Friend IT is no new thing for me to find my self traduced to His Majesty but I should wonder very much of which he clears himself if he give Credit to a Report grounded upon such Improbabilities for if His Majesty would be pleased to call to mind how oft he repeated to me that He would never condescend to the Parliaments Demands concerning the Militia no not for an Hour in the way it was I am sure He will not think that I could engage my self to the Parliament that He would perform that which He never gave me Ground to believe my self And as for His return to London I likewise affirm He never gave me cause to hope let be to engage my self to the Parliament for it I have had the Honour to be intrusted in divers Employments from Him and He knows I never exceeded His Instructions I hope He will not now think me so mad or so great a Knave as to do that which might bring Him any Inconvenience for why
wherein it is represented that your Lordships late Warrant for Printing His Majesties Letter hath occasioned great Grief and heavy Regrate of all who tender the Glory of God His Majesties Honour and procuring Vnity of Religion and Vniformity in Church-Government the continuance of Peace and Vnion betwixt the two Kingdoms and fearing if at this time we should be silent your Lordships should conceive us and the rest of the Kingdom to be involved with them in the like Desires Iudgements and Opinions and lest by our silence our Gracious Soveraign the Kings Majesty should believe us wanting in the Duty and Allegiance which by so many Tyes and Obligations we owe to Him our Native King or that our Brethren of England should apprehend the least Intention â—r Desire in us to infringe or any ways to encroach upon the Brotherly Vnion of the two Kingdoms so happily united under one Head We presume in all Humility to clear our selves and our Intentions to your Lordships and to all the World and therewith to represent our humble Wishes and Desires for Establishing His Majesties Royal Authority and continuing that happy Vnion betwixt the two Kingdoms which can never truely be conceived to be intended to weaken the Head whereby it is knit together and without which it can have no subsistence The happy Vnion of the two Kingdoms under one Head our King doth so much add to His Majesties Greatness and Strength of both Kingdoms that we British Subjects cannot choose but wish that the said Brotherly Vnion be heartily entertained and cherished by all fair and reasonable means to which we conceive no one thing will so much conduce as that the late Articles of the Treaty of Peace and Conclusions taken thereupon about Vnity of Religion may be carefully and timeously prosecuted wherein as our Commissioners then so we now without presuming or usurping to prescribe Rules or Laws of Reformation to our Neighbour-kingdom Civil Liberty and Conscience being so tender that it cannot endure to be touched but by such as they are wedded to and have lawful Authority over them notwithstanding seeing the duty of Charity doth oblige all Christians to pray and profess their Desires that all were of the same Religion with themselves and since we all acknowledge that Religion is the base and foundation of Kingdoms and the strongest Bond to knit the Subjects to their Princes in true Loyalty and to knit their Hearts one to another in true Vnity we cannot but heartily wish that this work of Vnion so happily begun may be crowned and strengthened by the Vnity of Church-Government and that your Lordships with us may be pleased to represent it to His Majesty and Both Houses of Parliament as an expression and Testimony of our Affections to the good of our Brethren in England and of our Desires to make firm and stable our Brotherly Vnion by the strong chain and Bulwark of Religion but as we have said no ways intending thereby to pass our bounds in prescribing and setting down Rules and Limits to His Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament their Wisdom and Authority in the way of prosecution thereof The sense we have of the great Calamities and irreparable Evils which upon occasion of these unhappy Distractions and Mistakes betwixt the Kings Majesty and the Two Houses of England which if not speedily removed cannot but produce the fearful and prodigious effects of a bloody and Civil War obligeth us in the duty of Christians and as feeling members of what may concern our Common Head the Kings Majesty and the Good and Happiness of our Brethren of England humbly to represent to your Lordships That as we will not be wanting with our Prayers and our faithful and best Endeavours to assist in the removing of these unhappy Mistakes and Misunderstandings so we heartily wish and humbly Petition your Lordships that from the deepness of your Wisdom such happy Motions may flow as upon that tender care of our Soveraigns Person and Authority Peace and Truth may be settled in all His Majesties Dominions Although we will not presume nor take upon us to prescribe Laws and Rules to your Lordships yet in all Humility we intreat your permission to represent such Particulars as we conceive and are very confident will conduce much to the removing of all â—hese Mistakes betwixt His Majesty and His Two Houses of Parliament and be a ready mean to facilitate a happy and wished Peace and continue the Brotherly Vnion between the Two Kingdoms And first that in answering the foresaid Petition your Lordships may be pleased to do no Act which may give His Majesty just occasion to repent him of what Trust he so Graciously expressed in his Letter of the Date the fifth of December He reposes in us His Subjects of His Ancient and Native Kingdom for we cannot think that our Brethren in England or any other can believe that the ground of this Mutual Vnion of the two Kingdoms by the several and respective Vnions to our Prince and Head should weaken the strong Bond whereby it is knit and by which we are so firmly tied by so many Ages and unparalelled lineal descents of an hundred and seven Kings Neither can we suppose that any good Protestant or true member of our Church can imagine far less seduce others to believe that by the late Treaty of Peace or Act of Vnion we as Scotish Subjects are in any sort liberated from the Dutiful Obedience which as Scotishmen we owe to our Scotish King or from that due Loyalty which as Scotish Subjects we owe to our Native Soveraign for Maintenance of His Person Greatness and Authority or that thereby we are in any other Condition in these necessary Duties to our Soveraign than we and our Ancestors were and have been these many Ages and Descents before the making of the said Act or before the Swearing and Subscribing of our late Covenant by which we have solemnly sworn and do swear not only our mutual Concurrence and Assistance for the cause of Religion and to the utmost of our power with our Means and Lives to stand to the Defence of our Dread Soveraign His Person and Authority in the preservation of Religion Liberty and Laws of this Church and Kingdom but also in every Cause which may concern His Majesties Honour we shall according to the Laws of this Kingdom and Duty of Subjects concur with our Friends and Followers in quiet manner or in Arms as we shall be required of His Majesty or His Councel or any having His Authority Secondly That if your Lordships think it fitting to make any answer to the Parliament of England their Declaration your Lordships may be pleased not to declare enact or promise any thing which may trouble or molest the Peace of this Kirk and Kingdom which by God's special Grace and His Majesties Favour and Goodness we enjoy and have established unto us according to our Hearts desire by the Laws Ecclesiastical or Civil of
of a long Preamble and Eight Articles THe first was That before they went on to a War and find great opposition from the Ministers the Grounds and Causes of it might be well cleared Secondly that the alledged Breaches of the Covenant and Treaties might be condescended upon and Reparation of them first sought Thirdly that there might be no such Grounds of War as might break the Vnion of the two Kingdoms and disoblige the Presbyterians of England Fourthly that none of the disaffected or Malignant Party might be admitted to Trust but on the contrary that they should be opposed and suppressed Fifthly that the Kings late Concessions might be declared unsatisfactory Sixthly that they should engage not to restore His Majesty to the exercise of His Royal Power till He should by Oath bind Himself and His Successors to consent to Acts of Parliament for confirming the League and Covenant and settling Presbytery the Directory and the Confession of Faith Seventhly that none might be trusted but such as were of known Integrity and good affection to the Cause Eighthly that the Church might have the same Interest in carrying on this Engagement which they had in the Solemn League and Covenant These Demands run in so high a strain that those of the Church-Party judged either they would be rejected and so the Church would pretend somewhat for their breaking with the Parliament or if they were yielded to it would so alienate the Hearts of the King and all His Friends in England from them that they would hate them as much as they did the English Parliament or Army The Committee of Parliament found the Strait they were in and saw what an unhappy practice it had been to give the Church-men so great an interest in Civil Affairs Some were for brisker Courses and for clapping up in Prison all the more turbulent Ministers but the Duke apprehended great trouble from that fearing it should raise stirs among the people which might retard the design of the Kings Delivery upon which all his thoughts were bent The hazard of intercepting Letters made the Intercourse by them so slow that the Lords that corresponded with His Majesty had no Return from him before the beginning of April and then they got that which follows I Was as glad to see the constancy of your Resolutions as I was sorry to understand the great Opposition you find in Your Vndertakings The King writes to his Servants in Scotland But as for any Enlargement concerning Church-affairs I desire you not to expect it from Me for such expectations have been a great cause of this My present Condition which I assure you I am still resolved rather to suffer than to wrong My Conscience or Honour which I must do if I enlarge My Self any thing in those points But I take very well the freedom of your Advice because I see it flows from your Affection being also confident that you will cheerfully and resolutely go on according to your Engagements to Me who am Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. 17th March 1648. And to this the Earls of Lauderdale and Lanerick wrote the following Answers SIR WE have received Your Majesties of the 17th of March Nothing but the cruel slowness of Proceedings here would have made us so long silent and that was occasioned by the great Opposition we have met with from the Ministers and the rigid Persons who strongly pretend Your Majesties not satisfying in matters of Religion and upon these grounds have gained upon many and obstructed any Engagement Yet we and those we have interest in are so sensible of our Duties our Honour and of Your Majesties sad Condition which goes nearer our Hearts than any earthly thing that although an Engagement upon the terms we parted on be impossible yet we shall either procure Scotland's Vndertaking for Your Majesties Person or perish let the hazard or opposition be what it can We can boldly say we have the Major Vote of the Parliament clear and if we were blest with Your Majesties Presence the work were done We dare not presume in this troublesom way to express the particulars of our Difficulties or Resolution but hope shortly to give a more satisfactory account having vowed to live and die Your Majesties most humble most faithful and most loyal Subjects and Servants LAVDERDALE LANERICK 22th March 1648. Lanerick also wrote what follows taken from an imperfect Copy under his hand SIR I Have been long silent and possibly should have been so a little longer had I not received Your Majesties of the 17th of the last Moneth but lest I be involved in other mens Guilt I must first speak and then perish or do my Duty Sir at our first returning to Scotland we met with a general Dissatisfaction with what you offered concerning Religion from the Ministers and their Party though all I have Interest in would have cheerfully hazarded their Lives for Your Majesties Preservation upon these or easier terms but after long Debate upon the Consequences of engaging in so great a Work not only without Vnanimity but with the Opposition of the Church and most of those who have been of greatest Eminence and Power during these late Troubles this moved us to a willingness for a very extraordinary Compliance with their Desires providing we might be assured of an Engagemennt But now when we have gone a greater length than even our Loyalty can allow us we find that nothing is intended by them but either a Conjunction with those that seek your Ruine or at least a dull and stupid Suffering and enduring of those destructive Resolutions to Religion and Government which are now designed by the Enemies of God and Your Majesty After this there was a new Committee of 24 chosen by the Parliament for a Conference with the 12 Commissioners of the Kirk who had many Meetings with them and gave them satisfaction to all their Demands so that all back-doors were shut and they were ashamed that they had asked no more wherefore being driven from all their Pretences they fled to the last starting-hole of Jealousie and said that their Designs were contrary to their Professions This was a tedious Affair and cost many Conferences In end great Offers were made to satisfie the Church-party but nothing did prevail whereupon the Committee drew up a large Declaration of all the Violations of the Covenant and Treaties made by the Two Houses together with an account of their own Intentions suitable to the Propositions made by the Ministers only they stood much upon the sixth Article that seemed most contrary to their Duty to their Sovereign and it took them up many days at length they yielded even to that but for this the Reader is referred to the Declaration printed with the Acts of that Parliament On the 25th of April the great Business was carried The Parliament vote an Engagement for the King of putting the Kingdom into a posture of Defenâ—e but the account of the